Serve by Design

These days, I am mourning the loss of another good friend, Pastor Joel Newton, who passed this week. The older I get, this is happening more frequently! Joel and I have known each other for more than thirty years. We met at a Bible conference that our church hosted just a few months after I returned to Illinois in the early nineties. I was immediately blessed by his quiet, approachable, and Southern gentleman temperament. He was raised in Alabama and loved to support his favorite team! “Roll Tide!” Joel and Cheryl's Retirement Celebration Joel would later be called to pastor one of our strongest churches in Peoria. He and I continued to make time for frequent lunch meetings at our half-way point in Lincoln. I considered our friendship to be a peer mentoring relationship although I think he regarded his older pastor-brother in Christ as “seasoned” enough to offer occasional mentoring suggestions. We formalized this relationship during the season when Joel undertook graduate studies ...

Our comedic, number-two son, surprised me this Father's Day with a humorous and candid remembrance from the family past... "'Heads bobbing and weaving!'... you would yell at Matt and me as a signal to start looking for cars as you backed out of a spot in our three-row, 1986 Caprice Wagon. Kids were a precursor to the backup camera in those days. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I ever actually looked for cars as it was just fun to move my head back and forth! Happy Father's Day, Dad!" "Old Blue!" The greeting brought back some fond memories of the old blue station wagon that served as our primary vehicle during the late eighties and nineties. That wagon was our version of the popular people mover of the time, the minivan, and it kept me from ever having to own a real one!  In that social media greeting, Marc had reminded us that "back in the day" we utilized the eyes and ears of four children to keep us out of some vehicul...